Era 5 'Fifthening': Block Reward Drops to 2.048 ETC

On May 31, 2024, at block 20,000,001, Ethereum Classic entered Era 5 of its fixed monetary policy — the fifth "fifthening" since the ECIP-1017 emission schedule was established.

## The Numbers

| Parameter | Era 4 | Era 5 |
|-----------|-------|-------|
| Block reward | 2.56 ETC | 2.048 ETC |
| Uncle reward | 0.08 ETC | 0.064 ETC |
| Daily emission | ~16,896 ETC | ~13,517 ETC |
| Annual emission | ~6.17M ETC | ~4.93M ETC |

## Cumulative Supply

By the start of Era 5, approximately 144.0 million ETC had been minted — roughly 68% of the ~210.7 million maximum supply. The remaining ~66.7 million ETC will be emitted over subsequent eras, with each era producing 20% fewer coins than the last.

## Why "Fifthening"

The ETC community uses the term "fifthening" because each era keeps four-fifths (80%) of the previous reward — or equivalently, reduces by one-fifth (20%). This distinguishes ETC's gentler reduction curve from Bitcoin's more aggressive halvings.

## Network State at Era 5

Era 5 began with ETC operating as one of the largest proof-of-work EVM chains by hashrate, following the post-Merge migration of GPU miners. The Spiral network upgrade was active, providing EVM parity with Ethereum's Shanghai execution-layer improvements.

## Remaining Supply

| Era | Reward | Approx. Dates | Emission |
|-----|--------|---------------|----------|
| 5 | 2.048 ETC | 2024–2027 | ~24.6M |
| 6 | 1.6384 ETC | 2027–2029 | ~19.7M |
| 7 | 1.3107 ETC | 2029–2032 | ~15.7M |
| 8+ | Decreasing | 2032+ | ~6.7M remaining |

The emission asymptotically approaches zero but never technically reaches it. In practice, block rewards become negligibly small by approximately Era 15.

[View the next block reward reduction →](/research/supply)